Post on 29-Nov-2014
description
Online SOurceS Of B-tO-B Data:
a cOmparative analySiS, 2010 eDitiOn
By Bernice GrOSSman & ruth p. StevenS march 2010
BuSineSS-tO-BuSineSS DataBaSe market inG
E x Ecuti v E summ a ry
An update to research on data sources published in 2009, this white paper evaluates the volume
and accuracy of B-to-B marketing data provided by five suppliers. Like the 2009 results, data
coverage and accuracy varied widely among vendors. Thus, we continue to urge marketers who
order compiled data to ask very carefully about the compilation practices and policies of prospective
vendors. We also strongly recommend that marketers conduct a pre-test of the data to assess its
applicability to their particular marketing need.
OnlinE sOurcE s Of B-tO-B Data: a cOmpar ativE analysis, 2010 EDitiOn
1
ccess to complete and accurate information about customers and prospects is more important than ever to business marketers. In the last year, much has happened in the world of B-to-B compiled data. Suppliers who compile business data via the Internet continue to grow their files, and develop new ways to package and present their information. But the traditional B-to-B data compilers have seen declining sales and considerable restructuring and consolidation during the economic downturn.
In light of these changes, we decided to conduct an update of our 2009 research about online sources of B-to-B data. We invited a variety of well-known and reputable vendors to answer a series of questions about their data and their business practices.
We would like to express our deep appreciation to the five vendors who agreed to participate:
• Demandbase • Jigsaw
• D&BSelectory • NetProspex
• Infogroup
thE scOpE anD intEnt Of thE 2010 stuDy
We followed the same approach as last year in order to address the perennial questions that concern business marketers about data volume, completeness and accuracy. We asked the vendors to provide company counts in a selection of critical industry sectors, plus contact counts for specific companies, and complete records on individual business people.
We specified the same ten industries as in the 2009 study, and asked the vendors to tell us how many companies they had in each of the ten, as indicated by SIC. For the contact data, however, this year we selected a different set of well-known firms in each of the ten industries.
We also recruited ten new business people in a variety of industries and in various job categories to agree to serve as this year’s guinea pigs. We are grateful to these brave souls for their generous support of this study.
A
Onl ine SOurceS Of B-tO-B Data: a cOmpar at ive analyS iS , 20 10 eD it iOn
2
inDi v iDua l c Ontac t s in thE s tuDy
Industry
Environment
Business Services
Not-for-profit
Education
Transportation
Government- Administration
Retail
Financial Services
USPS
Technology
Name
Stephen Wallis
DeborahSliz
JimSiegel
MichaelDevitt
Michael Cox
MarilynSescholtz
Bill Williams
Michael Christie
Cathrine E. Moriarty
DominicDimascia
Company
AIRxpert Systems
Morgan Meguire LLC
HealthCare Chaplaincy
City University of NewYork
Aviacargo Inc.
Departmentof Veterans Affairs
Harry&David
Christie/Coghlin Investment Management
USPS
GSI Commerce
Title
Chairman
President&CEO
Director,Marketing and Communications
DistinguishedProfessor,PhilosophyProgram
President
Psychiatrist
CEO
ManagingPartner
Marketing Specialist
VP,Technology DeliveryServices
thE pOsitiOning statEmEnts
Here is how the vendors described themselves in response to the following question: Provide a statement of no more than 150 words that describes your online B-to-B data product/service, including how you are positioned, meaning your competitive differentiation. In short, this question is, “Who are you, and how are you different?”
This year, we asked only one qualitative question, asking the vendors to explain their competitive positioning in the marketplace.
Demandbaseofferstheonlyonlinedatabaseofbusinesscontactinformationthatintegratesthehighestqualitydatafromtheindustry’stopsources(Jigsaw,InfoUSA,D&B,Harte-Hanks,LexisNexis,Hoovers,anddozensofothers).More than 8 million business contact records with email have been pre-validated and can be searched online at www.demandbase.com using thousands of powerful filter combinations. A simple user interface, pay-as-you-go pricing, automated de-dupe, and closed-loop web monitoring technology to track responseshasmadeDemandbase#1formorethan30,000salesandmarketingprofessionals in just 2 years. Any marketing or sales professional looking for an easier way to target a market or prospect within a sales territory, should try
Participating vendor
Demandbase
Onl ine SOurceS Of B-tO-B Data: a cOmpar at ive analyS iS , 20 10 eD it iOn
3
Participating vendor
Demandbasecon’t D&B® Selectory®
Infogroup
Jigsaw
Demandbase.Itisfreetogetstarted,therearenominimums,andcompletebusinesscontactinformationcanbeaddedtoOutlook,CRM,oranymarketingautomation system. D&B® Selectory® helps sales and marketing professionals find new customers and grow their sales by building targeted lists, profiling existing customers and running direct marketing campaigns from their desktop. Selectory offers its users unlimited searching, viewing and printing of detailed, location-specific companyandcontactinformation.Selectoryprovidesaccessto23millionbusinesses—16millionintheU.S.andCanada,and7millionothersworld-wide. Selectory allows you to: build targeted lists using up to 40 search criteria, download information for campaigns or for importing into CRM applications, no need to deal with a list broker, build a list in minutes, pinpoint the best opportunities in your target market, lookup company and contact details before making the call, add tags or notes, and keep all your sales data in a single place. Infogroup is the leading provider of data driven and interactive resources for targeted sales, marketing and research solutions. Sales and marketing professionals know they can rely on Infogroup’s flexible suite of solutions to add insight to every stage of the sales and marketing process and to achieve results.
Infogroup offers comprehensive information through multiple solutions including:
1)idExec,foronlineaccessto2millionexecutivedecision-makersat900,000public,private,non-profit,andgovernmentorganizationsin172countries.
2)OneSource®,arecognizedleaderinglobalbusinessinformationservices,delivering unparalleled company, executive and industry intelligence and content from over 2500 information sources.
3)OursignatureUSBusinessDatabaseof14millionUSbusinesses.TheUSBusinessDatabaseisphoneverifiedandisnotaderivativeofanotherproductorapplication.Asaresult,thecoverageoftheInfogroupUSBusinessDatabaseisintended to represent all active business sites.
Jigsawisthefastestgrowingdataproviderintheworld,andtheindustryleader inDataasaService(DaaS)andbusinessinformation.Jigsawuniquelyleveragesuser-generated content contributed by its global business-to-business community of one million members, as well as world class data hygiene and validation technologies.JigsawistheonlycompanyintheIndustrytouse“NativeApp”sharingwhereusersofCRMsystemssharedatawithJigsawandextendthereachoftheJigsawcommunity.Jigsawgivesindividualsandcompaniesaccess to contact information for millions of business professionals and profiles on millions of companies. In addition to delivering low-cost and easy access to high valuebusinessinformation,Jigsawprovidescompanieswithcloudbaseddataacquisitionandmanagementservices.JigsawhaswontheCODiEawardforBestBusinessProductivitySolution,aCRMRisingStaraward,andsalesforce.com customer’s choice award for Best Sales Intelligence Tool of 2009.
Onl ine SOurceS Of B-tO-B Data: a cOmpar at ive analyS iS , 20 10 eD it iOn
4
NetProspex NetProspexisraisingthestandardsoftheonlinecontactinformationindustry by being the most accurate resource for business contact information. Business contacts are crowd-sourced from a community of users, and verified by proprietary technology before being published. Continual data scrubbing ensuresmaximumquality.Withover9millionverifiedcontacts,NetProspexprovides accurate contact information on difficult-to-find decision makers acrossNorthAmerica.
1. It’sgrowing—newrecordsaddedeachday.
2. It’s verified — scrubbed by powerful proprietary CleneStep™ technology andbackedbya100%hardbouncereplacementguaranteewithin30days.
3. It’scrowd-sourced,providingadeepreachintohard-to-findmid-management decision makers.
4. It’s integrated, designed to fuel companies large and small, available on the AppExchange, and perfect for fueling marketing automation and sales pipeline fulfillment.
On
lin
e SO
ur
ce
S O
f B
-tO
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ata:
a c
Om
par
ativ
e a
na
lySi
S, 2
010
eDit
iOn
5
Her
e ar
e th
e co
mpa
ny c
ount
s in
eac
h of
the
ten
indu
stri
es r
epor
ted
by t
he v
endo
rs in
res
pons
e to
the
que
stio
n,
Stat
e th
e nu
mbe
r of
U.S
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s you
hav
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you
r fil
e w
ithi
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ch o
f the
se 1
0 SI
Cs.
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E c
Om
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un
ts
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rt
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Dem
andb
ase
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8,80
4
44,471
26,346
48,158
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15,754
6,072
no
D&
B® S
elec
tory
®
28,630
203,663
33,852
221,917
2,434,988
323,037
902,
982
232,129
94,318
119,848
yes
Info
grou
p
26,853
228,194
23,782
267,784
894,833
561,712
1,829,198
288,577
105,875
114,099
yes,
thr
ough
an
SIC
to
NAICSconversionfile
Jigs
aw
10,446
19,766
16,236
30,760
297,986
69,152
108,780
73,196
53,852
59,168
yes
Net
Pro
spex
852
1,200
6,616
11,030
63,039
12,156
20,108
16,242
9,737
5,978
no
32Stone,clayand
glas
s pro
duct
s
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st
ores
28
Che
mic
al a
nd
al
lied
prod
ucts
64Insuranceagents,
brokers&services
73Businessservices
81Legalservice
80
Hea
lth se
rvic
e
82
Edu
catio
nal s
ervi
ce
35Machinery,except
el
ectr
ical
48
Com
mun
icat
ions
Doyoucodefirms
withNAICS?
D&
B S
elec
tory
rep
orte
d co
unts
on
com
pani
es w
hose
Pri
mar
y SI
C is
as s
how
n. C
ompa
nies
wit
h Se
cond
ary
SIC
s in
the
nam
ed c
ateg
orie
s are
not
incl
uded
. A
bout
a th
ird
of a
ll U
S co
mpa
nies
on
the
D&
B fi
le u
se m
ulti
ple
nam
e an
d ad
dres
s com
bina
tion
s for
wha
t is r
eally
the
sam
e co
mpa
ny a
t the
sam
e ad
dres
s. H
owev
er, D
&B
pro
duct
s nei
ther
cou
nt se
para
tely
, nor
del
iver
sepa
rate
ly a
s pro
spec
ts, m
ulti
ple
vari
atio
ns o
f the
sam
e co
mpa
ny a
t the
sam
e ad
dres
s. Ji
gsaw
use
s its
ow
n “J
igsa
w I
ndus
try
Cod
e,” a
nd o
verl
ays S
IC fr
om a
thir
d pa
rty
sour
ce. I
n th
ese
coun
ts, J
igsa
w st
ated
that
they
incl
uded
bot
h th
e “h
ard
mat
ch S
ICS,
” as
wel
l as t
he m
appi
ng o
f SIC
to J
IC.
Onl ine SOurceS Of B-tO-B Data: a cOmpar at ive analyS iS , 20 10 eD it iOn
5
Her
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unts
for
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acts
at
each
of
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wel
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com
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n re
spon
se t
o th
e qu
esti
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Prov
ide
the
tota
l num
ber
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onta
cts y
ou h
ave
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ach
firm
, U.S
. onl
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clud
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quar
ters
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E c
On
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rt
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ase
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ws
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o
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entu
re
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hodi
st H
ospi
tal
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em
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S (E
duca
tiona
l TestingService)
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Onl ine SOurceS Of B-tO-B Data: a cOmpar at ive analyS iS , 20 10 eD it iOn
6
Her
e ar
e th
e fig
ures
on
com
plet
e co
unts
for
each
indu
stry
, in
resp
onse
to
the
ques
tion
, T
he n
umbe
r of
“co
mpl
ete”
con
tact
rec
ords
you
hav
e at
eac
h fir
m. C
ompl
ete
mea
ns in
clud
ing
full
nam
e, a
ddre
ss, ti
tle, p
hone
and
em
ail.
cO
mp
lE
tE
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nt
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ts
By
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mp
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ase
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grou
p
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spex
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o
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entu
re
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hodi
st H
ospi
tal
Syst
em
ET
S (E
duca
tiona
l TestingService)
Dell
Verizon
Sele
ctor
y de
fines
“co
mpl
ete”
as m
eani
ng c
onta
cts h
avin
g fu
ll na
me,
titl
e, a
ddre
ss an
d ph
one,
but
not
em
ail.
The
y al
so n
otes
that
som
e re
cord
s m
ay n
ot h
ave
fax
num
ber.
Onl ine SOurceS Of B-tO-B Data: a cOmpar at ive analyS iS , 20 10 eD it iOn
7
Her
e ar
e th
e re
cord
s fo
r ou
r te
n in
divi
dual
bus
ines
s pe
ople
, in
resp
onse
to
the
follo
win
g di
rect
ions
. Ple
ase
pull
the
reco
rd o
f eac
h of
thes
e pe
rson
s as i
t cur
rent
ly
appe
ars o
n yo
ur fi
le. S
ubm
it th
e re
cord
in it
s ent
iret
y. N
ote:
Ple
ase
do n
ot u
se
any
othe
r da
ta so
urce
s (e.
g., t
ele-
veri
ficat
ion,
or
Inte
rnet
sear
ch)
to r
esea
rch
thes
e na
mes
. W
e ha
ve se
cure
d pe
rmiss
ion
from
thes
e 10
peo
ple
to in
clud
e th
eir
data
in
this
rese
arch
, and
we
have
told
them
they
will
not
be
cont
acte
d or
res
earc
hed
in
any
way
by
the
part
icip
atin
g su
pplie
rs
Note:Werequestedthatvendorsprovideasecondaddressline,ifappropriate,
and
also
giv
e us
fax
num
bers
. Ver
y lit
tle
info
rmat
ion
cam
e ba
ck in
the
se
cate
gori
es, s
o w
e ha
ve n
ot r
epor
ted
them
her
e.
th
E c
On
ta
ct
rE
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s r
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Or
tE
D:
st
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hE
n W
al
lis
Firs
t
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t N
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ompa
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Add
ress
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ity
St
ate
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862-4739
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xper
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c.1John
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NetProspex
Onl ine SOurceS Of B-tO-B Data: a cOmpar at ive analyS iS , 20 10 eD it iOn
8
th
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ta
ct
rE
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t
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t N
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President
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Was
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DC
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5(202)
661-6192
dsliz@morgan-
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Data
Demandbase
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DEBORAH
SLIz
PRESIDENT
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Deborah
Sliz
President
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Sliz
President
&CEO
Mor
gan
M
egui
re
LLC
1225IStreet,
NW,Ste300
Was
hing
ton
DC
2000
520
2.
661.6192
dsliz@morgan-
meg
uire
.com
NetProspex
Onl ine SOurceS Of B-tO-B Data: a cOmpar at ive analyS iS , 20 10 eD it iOn
9
th
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rE
cO
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Add
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C
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St
ate
Z
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P
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mai
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Jim
Seig
elDirector,
Mar
keti
ng a
nd
Com
mun
icat
ions
Hea
lthC
are
Cha
plai
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315E.62nd
Stre
et, 4
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lNewYork
NY
10065
212-
644-1111
x141
jsie
gel@
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care
chap
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cy.
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Jim
Seig
elDirector
Marketing&
Com
mun
icat
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The
Hea
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are
Cha
plai
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Inc307E60thSt
NewYork
NY
10022
212
6441111
jsie
gel@
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th-
care
chap
lain
cy.
org
Cor
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Data
Demandbase
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Jigsaw
NetProspex
Onl ine SOurceS Of B-tO-B Data: a cOmpar at ive analyS iS , 20 10 eD it iOn
10
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Philosophy
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Cit
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3655thAve
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10016
212-
817-8620
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gc.c
uny.
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Cor
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Data
Demandbase
D&B
Sele
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Info
grou
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Jigsaw
NetProspex
Onl ine SOurceS Of B-tO-B Data: a cOmpar at ive analyS iS , 20 10 eD it iOn
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Onl ine SOurceS Of B-tO-B Data: a cOmpar at ive analyS iS , 20 10 eD it iOn
12
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ipO
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mai
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Mic
hael
Cox
President
Avi
acar
go
Inc.
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Ave
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Sout
hNewYork
NY
10010
212-
949-3139
mco
x@
avia
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o.co
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orre
ct
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Demandbase
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Onl ine SOurceS Of B-tO-B Data: a cOmpar at ive analyS iS , 20 10 eD it iOn
18
OBsErvatiOns aBOut thE Data
Weknewgoingintothe2010studythatmuchconsolidation had taken place in the B-to-B data industry. So it came as no surprise that fewer firms participated in our study this year—five, down from ten. Last year, several divisions of bothInfogroupandD&Bparticipated.But this year, both of these firms chose to represent themselveswithsinglereports.Onefirmfromlast year dropped out because it had divested itsbusinesslistsdivision.Othercompanies, like zoomInfo, declined to take the time to participate due to the press of business.
Overall,theresultsbringustothesame conclusion as last year: The business data available from vendors tends to be relatively accurate, but coverage is extremely spotty.
To be fair, this year we went further afield in selecting the ten businesspeople whose individual records would be requested from the vendors. We included such people as a psychiatrist from the VA, a marketing director at a non-profit, and a Washington lobbyist. All of these people are active buyers of business products and services, and thus of great interest to business marketers. But in many cases, the vendors had no records on them.
Another interesting angle in the data is the wide variance between vendors who build their files from the business level and those whobuildfromthecontactlevel.Jigsawis an example of the latter, having begun as a business-card swap site. As such, compared to traditional compilers like Infogroup and D&B,Jigsawhasmanycontactspercompany,but relatively fewer companies per industry.
Like last year, individuals with more senior titles tended to attract better coverage. Also like last year, we noticed that we could ask the same question of multiple vendors and get some very different answers, due to differences in interpretation and definition.
With regard to how the reported data has changed year on year, we can make a few observations:
• Inexplicably,somevendorsreportedvastly lower company counts in the same SICs in 2010versus2009.
• Ontheindividualrecords,weassumedthat vendors would provide us with direct phone numbers, but many provided only the general company number.
aDvicE tO BusinEss markEtErs OrDEring cOmpilED Data OnlinE
Ouradvicetomarketersbasedonthisyear’sdata has changed little from last year. We urge caution when ordering data from compliers. Marketers should develop a detailed ordering methodology, to increase the likelihood that the data they receive is what they were seeking.
Ourguidelines:
• giventhewidevariancesindataquantity and quality, it’s essential that you investigate thoroughly the data sources and maintenance practices of the vendors you are considering.
• Specifyexactlywhatyoumeanwhenordering data. Also drill down in detail to understand what the vendor means. In this year’s research, D&BSelectoryandJigsawwereworkingfrom adifferentdefinitionoftheterm“complete” thanours.Notthateitherisrightorwrong— but this can add to the confusion experienced by data buyers. As another example, when asking for phone number, be clear about whether you want the general switchboard or the contact’s direct dial.
• Beveryspecificaboutindustryselections. Find out if the vendor uses SIC, or some kind ofconversionalgorithm.Youwantto know exactly what you are getting.
• Keepaneyeoutforvendorspecialization by industry. As we saw in this year’s study, some individuals in some categories were not included in these large databases. So it’s
essential for market coverage that you explore industry specialty files for both prospecting and data append purposes.
• Considerwhetheryouwantbreadthof contacts or breadth of companies—or both. Datasourcewillalwaysbeanimportant factor in determining which compiler is right for you in the area of contacts versus companies. To enhance coverage, many marketers find that buying data from multiple vendors is necessary.
• Onlyusereputablevendors.Anumberof unscrupulous firms have entered the market claiming they can get you any business names you want, but their data turns out to be stolen, inaccurate, or otherwise not usable.
• Conductacomparativetestbeforeyoubuy. Here are three approaches you can try:
1. Sendeachpotentialvendoralistof 5000 records from your house file and asking them to add data fields.
Includeafewdozenrecordsonwhich youknowthe“truth,”toassess accuracy of what comes back.
2. Orderasampleofnamesfroma prospective vendor as per above, and then verify the accuracy of sample records by telephone.
3. giveeachprospectivevendorasetof instructions using very narrow criteria likeacertainemployeesizerangeand sales volume range in a certain state. Ask the vendors to sort the records in ZIPsequence,andgiveyouthefirst 1000recordstolookat.Ahigh incidence of identical records among the vendors will be a strong indicator of likely accuracy.
We hope our research is useful to business marketers who are renting or buying data online. This information will serve as a guide as you conduct your due diligence.
Onl ine SOurceS Of B-tO-B Data: a cOmpar at ive analyS iS , 20 10 eD it iOn
19
This publication is part of a series entitled Business-to-Business Database Marketing, byBernicegrossmanandRuthP.Stevens.Paperspublishedtodateinclude:
“OurDataisaMess!HowtoCleanUpYourMarketingDatabase” (October2005)
“KeepitClean:AddressStandardizationDataMaintenanceforBusinessMarketers” (February2006)
“OutsourcingYourMarketingDatabase:A‘RequestforInformation’istheFirstStep” (March2006)
“EnhancingYourB-to-BDatabasewithDataAppend” (November2006)
“15ThornyDataProblemThatVexB-to-BMarketers,andHowtoSolveThem” (November2006)
“WhatB-to-BMarketersareREALLYDoingwithTheirDatabases” (September2007)
“OnlineSourcesofB-to-BData:AComparativeAnalysis” (January2009)
These papers are available for download at www.dmrsgroup.com and www.ruthstevens.com
BErnicE grOs sm a n ispresidentofDMRSgroup,Inc.,amarketing databaseconsultancyinNewYorkCity.SheispastchairoftheB-to-BCouncilofTheDMA.Reachheratbgrossman@dmrsgroup.com
ruth p. s tE v Ens consultsoncustomeracquisition&retention,andteaches marketing to graduate students at Columbia Business School. She is the author of The DMA Lead Generation Handbook, and her new book is Trade Show and Event Marketing. Reach her at ruth@ruthstevens.com